Housing News Digest
Housing News Digest
The Tenants' Union Housing News Digest compiles our pick of items from all the latest tenancy and housing media, sent once per week, on Thursdays.
Below is the Digest archive from November 2020 onwards. From time to time you will find additional items in the archive that did not make it into the weekly Digest email. Earlier archives are here, where you can also find additional digests by other organisations.
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Archive
Economists’ high-rise study a low blow for heritage activist
Tony Moore The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)The introduction of high-rise developments in tin-and-timber suburbs do not have a negative impact on neighbourhoods’ character, a Sydney study has found – but a Brisbane community group says the assumptions that led to that conclusion are well off the mark. Centre for Independent Studies economists Peter Tulip and Zachary Lanigan studied five developments in Sydney and found high-density living might transform but not necessarily harm a suburb’s character based on property prices. ... Dr Tulip said while house prices and rents were not social qualifiers, they were “a way of gauging the character of a suburb”. ... [However] In one of Brisbane’s oldest suburbs, Kangaroo Point heritage activist Lori Sexton said house prices were not an effective measure for the impact on a suburb’s character.
https://www.smh.com.au/business/consumer-affairs/economists-high…
# NSW, Rent, Heritage listings, Housing market.Social housing waiting list could fill a town larger than Gladstone
Felicity Caldwell The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)There are so many people waiting on the social housing register, they could fill a town larger than Gladstone as Queensland faces a major housing “crisis”. More than a dozen of Queensland’s leading community organisations have launched a campaign, Town of Nowhere, calling for the state government to invest $4.1 billion to build 14,700 homes.
https://www.smh.com.au/politics/queensland/social-housing-waitin…
# Australia, Domestic violence, Public and community housing, Affordable housing, Campaigns and law reform, Families, Homelessness, Women.Vulnerable renters left behind in growing affordability crisis
Luke Michael Pro bono Australia (No paywall)The permanent $25 a week boost to JobSeeker has failed to make an impact on rental affordability, with new analysis of more than 74,000 rentals across the country showing just three are affordable for a person on the payment. Anglicare Australia’s latest rental affordability snapshot surveyed 74,266 rental listings in March to see how many were affordable for people on low incomes, meaning rent was no more than 30 per cent of a household’s budget.
https://probonoaustralia.com.au/news/2021/04/vulnerable-renters-…
# Australia, Rent, Federal Government, Housing affordability, Housing market, Welfare.Treeless pain leaves city’s western suburbs hot, dry and dusty
Rachel Eddie The Sydney Morning Herald (Paywall)Melbourne’s far-from-leafy western suburbs do not have enough trees to support intense development, and residents, councillors and planners say something needs to be done.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/victoria/treeless-pain-leaves-ci…
# Australia, Planning and development.Byron, Kiama crack $1m median house prices, NSW regional house prices keep rising
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)When Sarah and Stuart Cooke made their dream sea change pre-COVID-19, their rent on a three-bedroom unit in Sydney was almost the same as their mortgage repayments on a four-bedroom free-standing house in Byron Bay. Today, with the news that the median house price in Byron rose by an incredible 31.2 per cent over the past year, to a million-dollar figure only a shade behind the record Sydney median house price, they’re thanking their lucky stars they made their move when they did. There’s no way they could afford it now.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/byron-kiama-crack-1m-median-house…
# NSW, Housing market, Regional NSW.Melbourne’s median house price to hit $1m by June, prices rise by 4.8 per cent in three months
Melissa Heagney Domain (No paywall)Melbourne’s median house price is expected to hit $1 million by June, with new data revealing house and unit prices have skyrocketed to record highs.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/melbournes-median-house-price-to-…
# Hot topic Australia, Housing market.Tasmania, Hobart house prices soar to unaffordable levels, reaching ‘crisis point’
Sue Williams Domain (No paywall)House prices in Tasmania’s Hobart rose an extraordinary 15.9 per cent last year – the second sharpest increase of all the nation’s capital cities – to reach a record median of $601,567, now topping that of Perth, Adelaide and Darwin. Outside the capital, there’s been an even more massive surge in prices in some areas, with one suburb north-east of Hobart recording an incredible 26.8 per cent rise, Launceston seeing a 23 per cent jump and the Derwent Valley, 22.8 per cent.
https://www.domain.com.au/news/tasmania-hobart-house-prices-soar…
# Australia, Housing market.Art exhibition showcases homeless people’s photos throughout lockdown
(No paywall)Six homeless people were paid to fill disposable cameras during the UK lockdowns, with the images now going on display in an exhibition in London.
https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/uk-news/2021/04/28/art-exhib…
# International, Coronavirus COVID-19, Homelessness.